Brain Upgrade

Associate Images in Your Mind

Now for the fun part. We already have an image, now we'll need a way to glue it in our minds.

The way we're going to do this is by imagining a scene, a scene that combines two images: the encoded number image along with a peg image that will be used to trigger the memory.

As an example, suppose you want to buy a light bulb, and you must remember that it must be a 30-Watt one. The two images to combine would be the image for light bulb and the encoded image for 30. Using our mnemonic table, we find that 30 translates to the letters m and s. Mouse seems a pretty good word for these letters, so we'll go with it.

The secret for this to work is to make the mental scene memorable: make it crazy, ridiculous, offensive, unusual, animated, nonsensical - in short, make it fun!

Let's see: What's the zaniest way you can combine light bulb with mouse- I don't know about you, but here's what I just imagined:

"I'm in my local supermarket, in the electrical accessories aisle. As I catch one light bulb to observe it more closely… Bang! It breaks in my hand, and a giant mouse jumps out of it! The mouse runs away, squeaking frenetically. Everybody in the supermarket stops and stares at me puzzled and in absolute silence…"

Well, imagine that scene vividly in your mind and try not remembering that giant mouse next time you're in that supermarket aisle… "30-Watt it surely is!"